Bushwick Takes a Turn as an Alternate Reality in the New Dystopian Thriller "Diverge"

In a chilling new movie screening at this year's Bushwick Film Festival, present day Bushwick and Ridgewood appear as the setting for the protagonist's haunting alternate past.

"Diverge," an independent science fiction thriller written, directed and produced by Bushwick local James Morrison, kicks off in a future in which a city, presumably New York, burns on a distant horizon as a couple struggles across a salt flat: the husband, Chris is caring for his wife, Anna, who is sick with a deadly virus. A sinister figure provides Chris with a chance to go back in time and stop the spread of the illness affecting his wife, and his mission takes him back to our very own neighborhood.

"We shot on a lot of streets in Bushwick because we loved the feel [and] texture of them," auteur Morrison tells Bushwick Daily. "There are also so many great quiet areas in Bushwick, so we didn't have to worry about calling too much attention to our shoot and the actors could focus. Bushwick late at night has an almost ghostly feel in certain areas and we wanted to capture that for our story," he adds.

This isn't the first production to present the neighborhood as a site of interest after the apocalypse; indeed, the neighborhood is central to another thriller, named for the neighborhood, which stars Brittany Snow and which shot in Clinton Hill and in Bushwick earlier this year.

Catch "Diverge" at the Film Festival at House of Yes at 7 p.m. on Friday night; tickets are $12 and are available here.

Featured image: A scene from "Diverge," courtesy of Young Gunner Films.